As I understand it, this new corona virus has structural proteins that are similar to HIV and that likely make it more effective at infecting people. Which is bad news for everyone. The likely conclusion is that it either evolved these proteins on its own or a corona virus infected some HIV-positive person and learned new tricks. No reason to think any of this was man-made.
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I’d say possibly/potentially instead of likely, and stress that they’ve only seen the dna that codes for those proteins, it has NOT yet been demonstrated that coronavirus expresses any hiv proteins. they could just be short stretches of nucleotides hanging on, which lots of dna has stuff like that that just hangs around and is never expressed
but yeah nothing indicates this is a human engineered mutation
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8th US case confirmed, in Massachusetts: Esper approves DoD housing for US coronavirus quarantine after eighth case confirmed | Fox News
So its all over the country at this point
Are we at the point where someone should go into the doctor as soon as they have like a sore throat? I don’t think there’s any confirmed cases within hundreds of miles, but like there is an international airport here.
try to lay motionless face down in bed taking short shallow breaths
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I mean, I’m all for that but was asking for a friend
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I think that crowding the doctors office with people that don’t need to be there in close proximity to people that do need to be there is just going to accelerate the contagion.
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No, not even close. I am 100% concerned for people in China but about 0% concerned for me and my family in California.
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My uncle is a pulmonologist at a CA hospital. He is concerned that this is going to get pretty ugly. He’s not loving the fact that he’s going to be on the front line of defense.
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In seperate news. First case found in Tunisia.
This article is actually way more positive than they should be, and is still sounding the alarm loudly.
I say more positive because their main source of info is quoting government officials.
There are a million Chinese in africa. Many in rural areas. More so than other places, they are often misfits and outcasts.
This is a demographic that may not have the means or willingness to self quarantine .
Prediction again. We are one month out from a major epidemic in a African country.
Philippines also a major risk. Their are 10s of thousands of illegal Chinese workers living in fairly cramped conditions, working in the online gaming industry. The fact they are all illegal will likely reduce the chance of reporting and the effectiveness of contact tracing.
Edit to add: Phil government aware but completely paid off. So probably not going to draw attention to the issue.
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So far, so good in the CR. Six people have gone to the hospital under suspicion of having coronavirus but tested negative.
The bigger worry here is the seasonal flu
Definitely seen an uptick in absences from my classes as of late. Wonder if this is it.
First confirmed case in Massachusetts today.
Edit: pony slowed by virus
The pentagon is preparing some military bases to act as quarantine centers:
Jesus christ I wasn’t really panicking yet but this is going to be bad. Like even if somehow the US can keep it mostly contained, it’s gonna fuck up china which is awful and crash the world economy.
:(
Meh. We had meetings for Ebola contingency planning. (I was COS and head of ED and we had 10 different government agencies including military types in the room) I’d bet the Pentagon has a binder covered with donut crumbs they can brush off if they need to seize Toronto. You’re SUPPOSED TO HAVE PLANS FOR THIS SHIT. If you don’t you’re not doing your job - but it doesn’t mean it’s at all likely.
MM MD
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He is apparently a Umass student.
Sucks that Wuhan is gonna be known for this. When I was there and told other Chinese people that I was living in Wuhan, all they knew about Wuhan was that it was hot. Not much of an identity or reputation to have.
But it beats the hell out of being the home of the coronavirus epidemic. While Wuhan isn’t some super-amazing city, it deserves better than this.
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